What Is 'Fair Trading'? Is Fair Trading Ethical? Do the Workers and the Owners Both Benefit? Is Fair Trading Organic?

As the parent of a small baby - and especially if you are minded to provide an organic environment for your child - you will inevitably stumble upon the shopping ethos of Fair Trading.

We all know about Fair Trade Coffee and Chocolate. We know it tastes better than lots of the other products we are offered on our supermarket shelves, but do we really know what it means and how we are able to make it work to improve the world?

Rescuing Exploited Workers – The Modern Day Slaves of Our World
During the 60s, the plight of exploited workers worldwide – those who lived in abject poverty and ill-health despite being employed by large companies - was publicized. Companies - in striving to be competitive in a market where price is the only consideration - forced the producers of goods to keep costs as low as possible. At the bottom of the chain, the individual producer/worker, already living in an economically barren territory, has always borne the brunt of the hardship, but put up with the situation, as some income is always better than none at all. For many, it might be their only possibility for work. So wages were forced down to levels that ensured virtual slavery and inability to ever escape.

Fair Trade Systems Improves the Lives of End-workers
The concept of Fair Trading provides for the improvement of the lot of the end-worker and small producer, aiming not only to improve the standards of pay to a reasonable level, but also to holistically improve the environment in which the worker/producer and his family live. Examples are improved social care, health infra-structure and schooling for all children, with encouragement to progress to further education.

Where Concepts Fall Flat
In real terms, Fair Trading may only rely on the current laws of the country concerned. In which case, what we know as free market trading is completed to determine ‘fair’ policies for the end-worker/producer. Often these will only provide for a bottom-line poverty level, e.g. the legal minimum wage. This, in reality, does nothing to improve lives, working standards or the environments where the workers and their families live.

While Fair Trading Organization regulatory standards are laid down and should be complied with by companies seeking to display Fair Trade logos on their products, sadly, this is all too often not the case. A general lack of audit-ability of the entire chain of practice itself is failing to uplift the very people that the standards are aimed at.

Above the Minimum Light in the Tunnel
In an attempt to redress the problem, emerging companies are subscribing to ‘above the minimum’ standards as laid out by certifying organizations. These companies aim to work with the producer families and co-operatives of producing families rather than dealing through middlemen, and in real terms, improvement is being made to the environments in which these people live.

If we truly care about the people who produce the clothes we wear and the food we eat, we need to be conscious of the ethical implications of where we buy our goods. Research your suppliers, and when they fail to live up to the standards you set for them - vote - with your feet!